Timothy M. Kaine takes the stage with his wife, Anne Holton, and daughter, Annella Kaine, after winning a U.S. Senate seat for Virginia in 2012. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

In tapping Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.) as her running mate, Hillary Clinton didn’t just choose the popular former governor of a purple state that she hopes will turn out for Democrats in November. She also chose one half of a Virginia power couple with a history of public service and advocacy on issues related to child welfare and education.

As governor, Kaine championed early childhood education, a cornerstone of Clinton’s education platform, and pushed for more money to support public preschool. And in the Senate, he has been a champion of career and technology education and efforts to fight sexual assault in high school.

But Anne Holton, his wife — who serves as Virginia’s secretary of education — has an even more extensive record when it comes to advocating for children, particularly foster youth.

Watch the highlights of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Sen. Tim Kaine in their first joint appearance as running mates at a campaign rally in Miami on July 23. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

As a schoolgirl in 1970, she was on the front lines of the fight to desegregate Virginia’s public schools. Holton is the daughter of Virginia Gov. A. Linwood Holton (R), who championed integration in a state that was known for its vigorous efforts to resist it. To drive home this point, he sent his daughters to a historically all-black Richmond City public school, escorting Anne Holton’s sister to class in a gesture captured in a historic photograph.

“I have spent much of my working life focused on children and families at the margin, with full appreciation of the crucial role education can and must play in helping young people escape poverty and become successful adults,” Holton wrote in a Washington Post op-ed in June 2015.

Holton and Kaine also sent their three children, who are now grown, to Richmond public schools.